Exceptions
by KittyGonzales
Summary: "I wanted to stop. To crouch down. I wanted to say:'I'm sorry, child' But that is not allowed. I did not crouch down. I did not speak." What if Death had crouched down? What if he'd decided to break all the rules. To make exceptions.
1. A Mountain Range of Rubble

Chapter 1- a mountain range of rubble

The girl sensed me there, I'm sure. She looked up at me. Her sobbing ceased. She opened her mouth to ask me something. Whatever that question was, I will never know. There was only one word she could say, and she cried it. She screamed it, sobbed it, threw her heart up into her mouth and bellowed it.

**One huge, heartfelt word,**

**screamed by a little girl**

Papa

Her sobbing resumed. Her little body shook with the power of a human heart breaking.

**The rules**

The rules said I had to leave that little girl, sobbing, amid a mountain range of rubble, clutching the body of a tall, rusting-eyed man, abandoned by everyone she had ever loved or cared about.


	2. One exeption

Chapter 2- one exception

But I couldn't. She was so young, so lost. I had seen her 3 times now. I should only see a person once, when they die. If I do see them again, I should be carrying one or two souls, not a whole street. This girl had seen things beyond her years. She had loved and lost too many people for someone so young. I just couldn't do it.

**New words in the vocabulary**

**Of a shocked book thief**

Mama! Rudy!

She wept. She bawled. She howled. I was surprised I wasn't carrying her soul. How could anyone be in so much pain and not die? She was dying on the inside, but there was no one to comfort her. No one but me. I had to help her, to save her. I broke all the rules, and knelt down beside her.

**The first words Death had spoken **

**to a living human being**

**since the dawn of time**

I'm sorry, child.

She stared at me, as if she had not heard words in 1,000,000 years.

"Do you know who I am?"

The book thief nodded, unable to speak.

"Do you want your papa?"

She sobbed harder than ever now. She sobbed harder than I, in my millions of years witnessing humans dying, had ever seen. The earth shook with it. The air quivered and trembled. Proof that there is nothing more powerful than the human heart, especially one that's breaking.

I made up my mind. I would break the final and most important rule. I never would have done it normally, but seeing the grief-ridden, book-stealing, abandoned little girl sitting there howling in the wasted remains of what was once Heaven, I thought that one exception would do more good than harm. For, how could a world where the was a girl with such a tragic life be any good. I know that the Holocaust shook many's belief in God, but none more than mine. I would have to make one exception to the almighty rule.

I would raise the dead.


	3. Reception

This is not nearly as easy as it sounds. I can't simply say "Hey, God, can you bring them back from the dead?" Each soul leaves an imprint on me. A small part of them that sticks to me and I remember forever by. Through that small part I can communicate with them. That is completely and totally against the rules, and normally I would never risk it. But this was an exception.

The Himmel street cast was easy enough to find, distinct as they were. I pleaded with them to come back but they were reluctant. I was more than a little surprised. What could possibly be more important than Leisel? But Hans finally persuaded Rosa. "We'll be back," he said gently.

Rudy took almost no convincing at all. He had only one condition. That his family come with him. I groaned. As if I hadn't made enough exceptions today.

So, the whole Steiner family and the Hubermans came back. They all reacted quite different. Rosa Huberman reacted just like you'd expect her to.

"Those _Saukerls _didn't even sound the alarm!"

Rudy tried to act as though nothing had happened. He wiggled his fingers experimentally, and then said, "Wow, this place doesn't look so good, does it."

Hans crouched down and hugged his sobbing foster-daughter. "Shhh, shhh, its all right, we're here." Leisel looked up, amazed. She looked over the broken street and saw them all standing there.

*****The Book Thief's Reaction*****

"Am I dead?"

"No," Hans said soothingly, then stepped aside to let her see me.

"Thank you," she said softly. I simply nodded. What else could I do?

Then the book saw something that made her forget me altogether.

*****What the book thief saw*****

Rudy

She ran up and kissed him right on the lips. He looked her, wide eyed. The rest of the Steiners stood awkwardly. His youngest sister giggled. Rudy and Leisel neither noticed nor cared. They were too absorbed in each other's eyes. Rudy stared into the depths of Leisels beautiful brown eyes that devoured every detail of his own, absorbing the liveliness of those twinkling blue irises.

I knew I should leave them to their touching moments, but I couldn't. There was something I had to know.

"What was it like?" Death asking about death. How ironic.

It was Hans who answered me. "Its like here, only considerably more crowded."

"Then why didn't you want to leave?" This time it was Rosa who answered.

*****A Reason to Stay Dead*****

Hans Jr.

That was all she said. There was a strange expression on Rosa's face. There wasn't a hint of anger there. She simply looked like a woman who had lost a son. I suddenly felt a tidalwave of pity. An emotion not usally felt toward Rosa Huberman.


	4. The End

What happens next I'll never know. I like to think that Rudy and Leisel got married and they all lived long, happy lives. But lets not be foolish. This isn't a fairy tale, far from it. This is a tragedy, no doubt about it. What I did could only soften the blow. But I can always hope.

I began to walk away. My work here was done, but I had loads of work to do elsewhere. War never sleeps. But as I walked away, I couldn't resist one glance back. What I saw would be burnt into my memory. Whenever things are at their worst and wonder what I had accomplished in my eternity of life, I'd think of this image and smile. If Hitler accomplished one good thing it would be this:

He gave Death hope.

*****One huge image*****

The sky was a red stew

The Steiners, the Hubermans, and the book thief

Stood on the broken pavement amid a mountain range of rubble

And laughed


End file.
